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4 servings
35 Minutes
tools
- Baking sheet
- Large pan
Ingredients
- 12 oz Canned wild pink salmon
- ¼ cup Almond flour
- ¼ cup Chopped fresh dill
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 tsp Ground pepper
- ¼ tsp Garlic powder
- 2 Flax eggs (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 2 ½ tbsp water)
- 1 tbsp Arrowroot starch
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- ⅓ cup Diced shallot
- 2 tbsp Minced garlic
- ⅛ tsp Red pepper flakes
- 2 ½ tbsp Lemon juice
- ¼ cup Vegetable broth
- 13.5 oz Coconut cream
- 3 ½ cups Zucchini noodles
- 2 tbsp Pine nuts (optional)
Instructions
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1In a bowl, combine salmon, almond flour, dill, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, garlic powder, flax eggs, and arrowroot starch. Make sure to break up your canned salmon with a fork before incorporating other ingredients.·Preheat oven to 375°F.
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2Grab about a tablespoon of salmon mixture and form into a ball. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining meatball mixture.·Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown, flipping halfway through.
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3While meatballs are cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan. Add shallot and cook for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, or until translucent, stirring often. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes.·Finally, add ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, red pepper flakes and cook 1-2 minutes more, again, stirring often.
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4Add lemon juice, broth, and coconut cream to the pan. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down slightly.·Let simmer and thicken for 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce mixture has reduced by about half, stirring occasionally. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
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5Add zoodles to the sauce and simmer for 3-5 minutes, depending on how you like your zucchini noodles.·Enjoy with salmon meatballs. Optional: top with red pepper flakes and pine nuts.
A New, Lighter Take on Spaghetti & Meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs always hit the spot, but even the best foods can get a little tiring if you eat them over and over again. Because we wanted to come up with another keto-friendly pasta and meatball situation that was different than the norm, we developed this keto salmon meatballs with coconut cream sauce recipe! This filling dish serves around four people, and only takes 35 minutes to whip together! The macros are also very friendly, with 399 calories, 11 grams net carbs, 28 grams fat, and 22 grams protein in each serving.
We chose to use salmon in this recipe instead of ground beef to give a lighter and leaner feel to a classic dish. Plus, salmon has a plethora of nutritional benefits, including a high amount of Omega-3s, Vitamin B, and selenium, a nutrient known for brain health. Salmon is also a great protein on the keto diet since it’s a fatty fish with a high amount of protein and no carbohydrates. To make the salmon meatballs both pescetarian and keto-friendly, we used a little bit of almond flour and arrowroot starch to bind everything together. In addition, we used flax eggs for the meatballs instead of real eggs. Not only does flaxseed meal provide crucial binding properties in this meatball recipe, it also is high in fiber and has been used for other medicinal and nutritional properties dating back to the 8th century and King Charlemagne.
The salmon meatballs are served with a creamy coconut-based sauce made with your choice of coconut cream or unsweetened full fat coconut milk, lemon juice, a bit of vegetable broth, and shallot and garlic. Sauteing the shallot and garlic in olive oil with a few red pepper flakes combats some of the sweetness usually found in canned coconut milk or cream, while imparting allium magic like a large dose of antioxidants, and beneficial minerals like potassium and iron. Lastly, this dish is rounded out by zucchini noodles as opposed to regular noodles so this recipe fits with a keto meal plan. However, if you aren’t on the keto diet, feel free to use the coconut cream sauce on whatever noodles you please!
